From Kunming to Mandalay: The New "Burma Road". Developments along the Sino-Myanmar border since 1988
The present paper aims to describe the vitality and complexity of bilateral trade along the Sino-Myanmar border.
Three aspects have been emphasized. Firstly, the booming of cross-border commercial exchanges must be understood within a larger strategic framework. The connection between the two countries is motivated by economic and security interests: energy security, access to raw materials, cooperation for regional development and (for China) opening up of inner provinces.
Secondly, an analysis of the political and demographic situations in the border areas is important to understand trafficking activities, but also to understand thriving exchanges and the mobility of people. The second part of this paper describes the frontier area in detail.
Finally, this paper underlines the key role of the Sino-Myanmar population (even if they are not the only actors of the trans-border trade). Today's renewal of Chinese identity and community life in Myanmar is both a factor and an effect of thriving bilateral relations.
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From Kunming to Mandalay: The New "Burma Road". Developments along the Sino-Myanmar border since 1988
Center for Asian Studies
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